Related

We’re living through a stupendous, technology-driven energy boom.
In oil and natural gas fields across the land, one can see capital investment by the mile — across the surface of the land and road grid are drill rigs and pump systems that go deep into the bowels of the earth.
Looking back over 150 years in the U.S. since the dawn of the Oil Age at Titusville in 1859, no generation has EVER seen as much volume of “new” oil and gas come out of the ground as we’ve witnessed in the past couple of years…

There’s been a lot of ways to play the rebirth of American energy.
The U.S. oil and gas patch has been booming – pipeline players, drillers, processing facilities and operators are just a few of the ways we’ve suggested to play it.
Today I want to share one American investment that you’ll want to avoid.
It’s hard not to get caught up in the euphoria.
Oil is flowing from South Texas to North Dakota – and America’s total crude production is heading higher by the day. Same goes for natural gas. Today we’re producing more of the stuff than we’ve ever produced.

Getty Images/ChinaFotoPressFor the latest data on the world’s energy markets, organizations such as the IEA (International Energy Agency) and the EIA (Energy Information Administration) are crucial sources. Every year, investors and entire industries rely on their reporting on energy supply and demand, as well as their forecasts going forward.

There’s little denying that the U.S. economy is on the upswing since the recession. Manufacturing is strong, jobless claims are falling and wages are rising. Delta Air Lines, which we own in our Holmes Macro Trends Fund (MEGAX), recently announced that it will be giving its 80,000 employees $1.1 billion in profit sharing, while Wal-Mart, held in our All American Equity Fund (GBTFX), unveiled plans to hike its minimum wage to $9 an hour in April.

Deutsche Bank's Torsten Sløk has a new chart this morning putting the US shale boom's contribution to job growth into some context. Simply put, it's helped, but it hasn't been the dominant driver. "Less than 1% of total employment in the US economy is in the energy sector," Sløk said. That means if the industry gets hit hard by low oil prices, the greater economy may not feel it very much.

David McNew / Stringer / Getty ImagesInvestors who’d plowed $2 billion four years ago into a private equity fund that had also borrowed $1.3 billion to lever up may receive “at most, pennies for every dollar they invested,” people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

As of November, oil and gas companies employed 543,000 people across the U.S., a number that’s more than doubled from a decade ago, but as Bloomberg reports, thousands of energy industry workers are now getting their pink slips as crude prices have plunged to less than $50 a barrel.

While Jim Cramer went "all-in on oil stocks" in May 2014 (right before the collapse), it was the fracking sand-providers that were the most-loved stocks on many individual investors buying lists last year... until their worlds caved in. As WSJ reports, for many sand producers, this is their first time on the bucking bronco that is the cyclical energy business—and not all of them are ready for the wild ride.